The first few chapters started off pretty good but then the book took a turn and really started to lose me. The banter throughout was entertaining but I literally felt it had nothing to do with what happened to Ruthy Ramirez. Probably could’ve named it Our Lives Without Ruthy Ramirez.

We’re given a dual timeline with multiple POVs from the Ramirez family including a few flashback chapters from Ruthy. It follows the family as they continue to navigate their lives and deal with the absence of daughter/sister Ruthy Ramirez who disappeared at age 13 without a trace. In 2008, Ruthy’s sister Jessica came across a popular tv show and thought one of the girls might’ve been Ruthy. Together with the help of her sister Nina they come up with a plan to find their long-lost sister.

As good as the book started off I’m disappointed with how under developed it was. The characters were okay but nothing about them stuck out to make any of them memorable. We have quite a few chapters that had nothing to do with Ruthy’s disappearance even the chapters she appeared in. The title of the novel was a bit misleading considering what occurred in the novel.

I basically predicted what was going to happen in the last few chapters. Then the ending was so rushed and to finally know what did happen to Ruthy left me even more disappointed. The novel had so much potential to be great had it solely focused on Ruthy. We learn about everything and everybody but Ruthy.

Overall the novel was meh the last chapter kind of increased my rating so can’t say I recommend. But read at your own will you might enjoy it. It was a pretty quick read and the pacing was fast. I also appreciate the authors message surrounding missing minority children but the book didn’t deliver the way it could have in my opinion. Special thanks to the author, grandcentralpub, & netgalley for my advanced copy!!!

3.5 stars rounded down.

A lively and bustling portrait of three women in a Puerto Rican family dealing with the disappearance of 13 year old Ruthy over a decade ago, but which, for me, didn’t quite resolve satisfactorily.

Ruthy never came home from track practice and most people assumed the rebellious teen had run away. So, years later, when her two sisters see a lookalike called Ruby on a reality show called Catfight, they are convinced it’s their sister and make a plan to confront her in person.

The narrative swings between older sister Jessica, younger sister Nina (Ruthy was in the middle), and their mother Dolores. It touches on their responses to Ruthy’s disappearance as well as their current realities and the author does a terrific job of creating their individual and very human voices. In addition to these three perspectives, there is also a narrative about the day of Ruthy’s disappearance which shows the reality of the young teen’s life and resolves the mystery of her disappearance.

Jessica is a nursing aide, has a baby, and her white boyfriend is possibly cheating on her. She is the responsible one and it shows at her job where she’s asked to deal with the difficult patients while the two male aides goof around. Nina was the first in the family to go to college but since graduating with a degree in biology hasn’t been able to find a job until she’s taken on as a sales associate in a lingerie shop. Here, she’s bullied by the White manager and patronized by the 16 year old White assistants. Dolores works at her church giving parenting classes. She and her bestie, Irene, provide some of the comic highlights of the novel but the author gently shows their past trauma and how it informs their present behavior.

The road trip, which Dolores and Irene manage to crash, brings all the threads together and gives some shape to the plot. It’s both comic and tragic while exposing the lies the women have been telling themselves and each other and while it brings the family closer because of that, it also means they have to face what they now know.

This is a debut novel and the author is clearly a talent to watch.

Thanks to Grand Central and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

I love a good mystery or thriller, and when I read that this one featured a missing sister that potentially pops up on a reality show years later? Sign me up!

Told in alternating POVs among two sisters and their mother, the story follows the family several years after the middle daughter, Ruthy, goes missing after track practice one day. Years later, one sister is convinced she sees Ruby on a reality tv show, which leads to the family reuniting and reopening old wounds as they reflect on Ruthy’s disappearance and potential reunion, often overstepping in the pursuit of finding her. Sprinkled throughout the novel are a few chapters from Ruthy’s POV (though I question how reliable they are), describing the lead up to the abduction.

While this story was a quick and compelling read, there’s also an undercurrent of discomfort as you can sense the characters, while family and ultimately coming together to try and find this stranger they think might be Ruthy, all of their trauma and issues with each other and resentment boils beneath their interactions. While not a surprising concept in a story about a fractured family, I didn’t get the in depth connection or closure from and for the characters that I would have hoped. The ending itself too was such a gut punch, and while I understand why the author chose to go that route, I am really missing the days of getting a satisfying ending to a mystery/thriller book.

Don’t get me wrong- I couldn’t put this book down and finished it in less than 24 hours. I think the author’s writing style was easily digestible and realistically raw, and I appreciated the Puerto Rican representation through the characters of this story (I am always here for more Latinx representation!) I just would have preferred it to be a tad bit longer and fleshed out given the number of and severity of topics that were touched upon (the book clocks in at around ~240 pages).

Overall: A quick and compelling read that is hopefully the start of future (and longer) works by the author in the future.

i love lit fic because there is never a plot so it's even more impressive when i find it unputdownable

this had that trademark Debut feeling (kinda clunky and error-ridden writing), but not when it came to the characters, who felt fleshed out and real even though there were 900 of them and the perspective kept switching

good stuff! i'd read more from this author

Thank you NetGalley and the author for this arc. I really enjoyed the premise and characters in this book. As a second generation Latina a lot of the dynamics and cultural references resonated with me. I think the author did a wonderful job at depicting the family dynamics of the Ramirez family and those around them.

When pain doesn't have an accurate target to hit, it lands on the family members closest to us. No one but the reader knows what happened to Ruthy, and in the search for a missing child, a lot of other secrets are unburied.

The short novel has four narrators: Ruthy, Nina, Jessica, and Ma. As the chapters circle the disappearance trying to uncover the truth of Ruthy's loss, their questioning turns inward, but their behaviors turn toxic and abusive.

I need more time with this book. None of the characters are likable. Ma is abusive and hateful to her daughters. Nina is a selfish college graduated underachiever. Jessica is an obnoxious martyr. And Ruthy, the youngest, is a child making a child's mistakes.

And yet each character has had to endure the worst humanity has to offer. It begs the question, are they unlikeable because the realities of the world twist them into curdled versions of themselves? Toxic vignette after toxic vignette creates a loop from which they can't seem to escape.

So why then do I love this book?

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the ARC of this through @netgalley.

When I read the plot to this one, it made me think of "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D Jackson. I thought it held a lot of promise and had the ability to be extremely impactful. With it's title, I assumed there'd be a little mystery and thriller aspect.

Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. The character development and writing was fine, but the story and plot were lacking, disjointed, and didn't flow well. Truthfully, I think it would have worked best as a short story that included the first few chapters and the last few chapters.

This book is for readers that don’t mind being a fly on the wall for pretty much whatever. Based on my reading experience, the lack of a plot and the open-endedness simply did not work for me. The author’s writing is easy to read and the dialogue between characters is believable, but my aversion to slice of life stories deeply impacted my rating. For all the story elements I did enjoy, there were so many pages that made me question the point of it all, and I finished the book with more questions than answers.

I enjoyed the book for:

- its depiction of a not-so-perfect family
- comedic banter
- relatable reality tv elements

Thank you to Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the digital ARC.

Full Review: https://readingbeyondthebookcover.com/book-review-what-happened-to-ruthy-ramirez-by-claire-jimenez/

3.5 ⭐️ I enjoyed this book, overall, but it left me wanting more. I liked the way the author told the story, the characters, but there was something missing for me. The ending did shock me, I was not expecting that.

I read this book for the Reader's Digest book club. I loved the idea of it but it was just OK for me. I understand the language was part of the family's dynamic, but it got very old.

Just not for me. I might consider reading something different by this author though. Giving a moderate review because someone else may enjoy it more.

Thirteen‑year‑old middle child Ruthy disappeared after track practice.
There seems to be no trace of her and her family is shattered and scrambling for answers.
Jump forward twelve years as older sister Jessica is watching a raunchy reality show where a woman named Ruby looks and acts like her long lost sister Ruthy. She informs her younger sister Nina of her discovery. This Ruby or possibly Ruthy has dyed red hair but importantly, she bears a beauty mark under her left eye just like their missing sister! Could it be Ruthy, after all this time?



The impact of Ruthy's disappearance hasn’t been easy on the Ramirez family. It’s now 2008, twelve years later and their mother, Dolores, is still struggling with the loss of her child, Jessica now has a newborn baby and works in a hospital. Nina, after four years of college, has returned home to medical school rejections. Her dream deterred as she is forced to work at a mall lingerie store folding tiny bedazzled thongs. 



Upon the discovery of the possibility of having found their sister, Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed. Mom learns of her daughters plan and insists on joining, along with her pot-stirring holy roller best friend, Irene. Get ready for a rollicking family road trip. 


Debut author, Jiménez portrays the resilience and spirit of Puerto Rican women.

Highly recommend!

4.5 Stars

This book was already on my TBR when I received the opportunity to read it on NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review. I had been in a reading slump for a few weeks and thought a light YA novel might help me back into the groove. I really underestimated how much this story would captivate me. I even found myself wanting to take a day off of work just to stay home and keep reading and I’ve been thinking about this book for days since I finished reading it.

I was 92% through this book when it dawned on me that this story is not actually about What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez but really just about the family that is left asking that question. The story is not a mystery or who dunnit type story and if you’re expecting that it likely won’t scratch that itch for you. What it is, is a beautifully raw portrait of the wreckage left behind when a family has suffered the tragedy of family separation and is left asking what happened for a decade without any answers.

The story starts ten years after 13-year-old Ruthy Ramirez disappeared and it focuses on the family she left behind - in particular her mother and two sisters. They don’t know if young Ruthy ran away, was kidnapped and is still suffering somewhere, was killed… For a decade this family has suffered. They’re angry, they’re broken, they’re dysfunctional, and they still love each other even when they get on each other’s last nerve. We see a clearer and clearer portrait of how each family member has been impacted as they struggle to decide what to do next when they’re certain they’ve spotted long-lost Ruthy Ramirez on a raunchy reality show.

Some of the critiques I’ve seen in other reviews centered on the amount of swearing. It’s not something I noticed. I thought it felt natural given their circumstances. They’re not in a healthy place, they’re angry, frustrated, and scared. After reading the reviews I questioned whether it was really that much and had to go back to the text since it was so unnoticeable to me.

I felt similarly when some reviews said they found the characters unlikeable. I was rooting for them the whole time. These are not polite, happy, well-adjusted people. They’re flawed and hurting. I found the characters relatable and I could see family members in the characters. I experienced a different kind of family separation and the loss of my sister for a 10-year period of time when I was a child. I found myself writing comments as I read “yes! Exactly!” or “That’s exactly how I felt”. I really enjoyed that each chapter switched viewpoints. I’d read a chapter from one sister’s viewpoint and really identify with that character, really empathizing and thinking her mom or other sister was so annoying, then read from the mom’s viewpoint and be so frustrated on the mom’s behalf. It really helped paint the complexity of their experiences and family dynamic for me.

I know this is supposed to be a comedy, and there were definitely moments that made me laugh, but it is definitely on the dark comedy side of things. It felt much more like a serious book with some lighthearted moments and humor peppered in so it didn’t feel overly heavy for the reader. I was emotionally invested in the outcome for these characters so the lighthearted moments helped me feel energized to keep reading rather than it feeling emotionally draining.

I would have loved for this story to be written as adult fiction instead of YA, as I would have preferred the story to be longer and take a deeper dive into their psyches and what made them tick. That’s the only thing that makes me want to give it 4 stars instead of 5 stars, but for the YA format, I think it was just right.

Wow, this was a really intense one.

I was very intrigued by the premise and assumed it would be a mystery/thriller, but it was definitely more of a family drama. It was a very tough read and dealt with some very upsetting issues, but I found it worth it. Each of the characters was so deeply developed that I could not help enjoying this book. It doesn't wrap up neatly, but I also think that suits the subject matter well.

A truly powerful story that will wreck and entertain readers, WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ is an incredible debut. After Ruthy Ramirez goes missing at the age of thirteen, her disappearance affects each of her sisters and mother in irreparable ways. Years later, while watching a raunchy reality TV show, her older sister Jessica recognizes one of the girls on the show who calls herself Ruby and realizes that could be her lost sister Ruthy. After Jessica shows Nina the show, all they can think about is reconnecting with their sister.

I really appreciated how the author told this story from the viewpoints of Jessica, Nina and Dolores, Ruthy’s mother. The combination really made the story more impactful, while also bringing deep love and humor to it. The chaotic family dynamic, along with the identities of each character, created such an interesting and unique story. The story is also told from the perspective of Ruthy, before she disappeared, and the events leading up to it.

I don’t want to say too much else except that I highly recommend reading this debut novel. Beautiful, chaotic, entertaining, and incredibly powerful, WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ may be a work of fiction but really highlights how many young girls go missing everyday.

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez to is a story about a family broken from the disappearance of their sister and daughter. Told from alternativing perspective of the sisters and mom, the search for their missing Ruthy leads them to a reality TV show. Conflict, humour, and attempts to reconnect as a family drive this story. It wasn't my favourite, but I don't regret reading it and the narrative arc ultimately had a really effective payoff.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC of What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jimenez in exchange for an honest review. I will be writing a review later as it's spring weather meaning that tornado sirens are going off and it's all stormy.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ruthie has been missing for years. Her older sisters still wondering what happened to her, her mother still struggling with the unknown. While tragic this is an often funny book as each of the Ramirez family struggles to make peace with Ruthys disappearance.

The bickering and fighting between them all is often laugh out loud funny. The chapters are broken up into each Ramirez member including Ruthy. You do find out what happened to her but that isn't the most important part of the book. What is important is the people who are still there. Still struggling, still finding their way.

As the family takes a road trip, the in fighting and Puerto Rican culture fly off the page. As the family pulls together to find Ruthy who they believe is on a tv reality show called "Catfight" they also reconnect and find themselves closer, revealing secrets that have long been kept hidden

This book is so unique. People uncomfortable with profanity will be clutching their pearls with this one. People unfamiliar or uncomfortable with latin culture will not be able to relate. Luckily, I do not fall into either group and found this book to be fantastic! I loved this family and their relationships. I loved the Spanish sprinkled throughout, I loved the sarcasm, and I loved the love between the sisters and their mother.

this book was messy. i tend to love messy books following the messy lives of messy characters. HOWEVER, this book was a whole mess. instead of what happened to ruthy i want to know what happened to the plot… the fact that you are taken on a whole ass journey thinking one thing, then finding out the truth in the last paragraphs of the book was my thirteenth reason. i wanted to fling my phone across the room. i would rather the book ending with an open ending than having this.